Door open for Perez despite commitment to Sauber - Slim

Carlos Slim is happy at Sauber, but the Telmex chief is not ruling out a change of direction as Sergio Perez pushes to the front in formula one.

"Peter Sauber is a person who knows the business of F1 like no other and is characterised by his development of new talent," Mexican Slim, who is 22-year-old Perez’s high profile financial backer, told the sports newspaper Marca.

"The (Telmex) partnership has two sides," he explained. "On the one hand there is our interest with Sergio Perez, whilst on the other hand we have committed ourselves as a company to the (Sauber) project."

But, whilst at Sauber now, Perez is also the cream of Ferrari’s driver development programme, and has been linked with Felipe Massa’s race seat.

Asked specifically if Telmex would follow Perez to Ferrari, Slim answered: "We want, some day, to see one or more world champion Mexican drivers.

"If we can accompany them on the way ... but the important thing is right now," he insisted.

"He (Perez) has shown that, in the future and with the right tools, he can win races and the championship."

On a sponsor event in Switzerland on Wednesday, Perez was asked about his future and simply told Le Matin newspaper: "My focus for now is on this season."